Arbor Update

Ann Arbor Area Community News

2nd and 4th Ward Council races add Republicans

21. June 2005 • Murph
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Republicans, an endangered species in Ann Arbor’s City Council with Mike Reid declining to seek re-election, have filed candidacy in two Council Wards: the same Wards that will see Democratic primaries. (We, the fortunate few, will let the rest of you come watch us vote, and further allow you to bask in the glow of people who actually have the chance to select our City’s leaders.)

Thomas Borque has filed as a Republican in the 2nd Ward, where Eugene Kang and Stephen Rapundalo face each other in the Democratic primary, and Jim Hood has filed in the 4th Ward, where Eric Lipson is challenging incumbant Marcia Higgins in the Democratic primary.

Greens, Libertarians, and Independants still have time to file, though the Greens have stated an intent to focus on an instant-runoff voting ballot item rather than field candidates.



  1. Actually, I think the Greens missed a deadline to get the council to approve a caucus or some such technicality, which makes it impossible for them to nominate candidates this year.
       —Scott Trudeau    Jun. 21 '05 - 06:38PM    #
  2. The HV Greens didn’t bother to meet the deadline because there was no one who stood up to run.
       —Marc R.    Jun. 21 '05 - 06:58PM    #
  3. the HV greens are a joke. Both Ypsi and Ann Arbor could use a strong green party to influence local polotics.

    IMHO, those people are too concerned with national issues and ‘run-off voting’ to bother with actually being involved in local polotics and making a difference. That is one of the reasons why I dis-liked Nadar so much, I think you need to build a party from the local level up, not from the national level down.
       —Just a Voice    Jun. 22 '05 - 12:30PM    #
  4. JaV,
    You seem to spend a considerable amount of time here spouting off on topics that you apparently don’t have the first clue about.

    #1: The HVGreens were around well before Nader ever showed his face at a Green gathering.

    #2: IRV will be one of the methods by which the ironclad control of the electoral system by the two (one?) major parties is relieved. Try doing a little research: www.fairvote.org.

    #3: HVG has pretty much always focused on local issues, because it’s a local organization. I didn’t happen to see you at the recent forum about the dioxane plume and Allen’s Creek recently, did I?

    #4: Complaining that a ‘strong Green presence’ is needed without first stepping up to help create one is often defined as ‘hypocrisy’. Local meetings are 7 PM, 2nd and 4th Mondays of every month, at The Planet on South U.
       —Marc R.    Jun. 22 '05 - 12:38PM    #
  5. I don’t blame the Greens for Nader so much anymore as I blame Nader. With his profile, he probably would have emerged as big a nuisance as he did anyway (and this from someone who voted for him in ‘00). When are the primaries? I want to make sure I mark my calendar for the 2nd Ward.
       —Lazaro    Jun. 23 '05 - 10:07PM    #
  6. The primaries are on August 2nd.
       —Larry Kestenbaum    Jun. 24 '05 - 01:54AM    #
  7. Is the first ward contested this time around?

    When was the last time the 1st was seriously contested, anyway? As far as I can recall, there hasn’t been a Republican candidate up here in the 16 years I’ve lived here, but I wasn’t eligible to vote for 11 of them. . .
       —[libcat]    Jun. 24 '05 - 05:12AM    #
  8. Bob Johnson looks to be the only major party candidate in the first.
       —Dale    Jun. 24 '05 - 01:24PM    #
  9. Libcat: nope. Johnson is running unopposed. In fact, there are currently almost too few candidates for the first Ward, since Groome is resigning (probably at the end of the summer) and I haven’t heard anything about a replacement yet.

    So, are you running as a write-in? In my five years in the 1st, I always felt a good odd-year campaign in Bursley alone could get you close. Not that I ever tried.
       —Murph.    Jun. 24 '05 - 01:25PM    #
  10. ha! I’m not even certain I’ll be in the First (or Ann Arbor at all) by November, let alone for the next two years. . . .

    if you could actually get campus to vote, someone from up there could actually have a chance, but what are the chances of that happening?
       —[libcat]    Jun. 24 '05 - 04:04PM    #
  11. libcat: I don’t know that campus mobilization has ever been tried. I think elections in recent memory have divided into two types –

    1. Elections where the national races were so high-profile, and the student body so busy freaking out about them, that nobody thought at all about local elections, and,

    2. Elections where there were no national races for the student body to freak out about, so nobody thought at all about any elections.

    Getting students to think/understand that local elections matter to them has long been a desire of mine. I think it would either require running candidates in odd years and convincing students to vote (general elections 2 years ago were only about 3000 votes/Ward), or else getting somebody to understand during even years that the nationals are not the only thing going, and piggybacking a local campaign on the fervor of the nationals.
       —Murph.    Jun. 24 '05 - 05:05PM    #